Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Jordan

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

Attorney General William Barr taking heat from Democrats on Capitol Hill this past week, after refusing to testify before the House Judiciary Committee last Thursday over the proposed questioning format.

Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler now threatening to hold Barr in contempt of Congress if he doesn't produce the full unredacted Mueller report by 9:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Joining me right now is Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee.

Congressman, it's always a pleasure to see you.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OH: Good to be with you.

BARTIROMO: Before we get into what took place last week in your committee, your reaction to what we just heard from Papadopoulos and Nunes.

JORDAN: Well, I think the fundamental question is, was Joseph Mifsud working for Western intelligence?

And if he was, that changes it all. Bill Barr has indicated he's going to get to the bottom of this. And it is important that we do find out how this all started.

I always go back to this, Maria. January 3, 2017, then the highest ranking official in the United States Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer, said this about president-elect Trump. He said, you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.

And the question is, did that really play out? Was the intelligence community targeting the Trump campaign, targeting the Trump -- then president-elect Trump and the Trump administration? Bill Barr wants to find out. And I think he's going to do it. And I applaud him for doing so.

BARTIROMO: Yes, that is key, because if we learn officially that Mifsud was actually working for the FBI, then we have got the evidence it was all entrapment, it was all a plan.

JORDAN: Well, yes, but it's not just Mifsud. It's like what we have learned from The New York Times.

BARTIROMO: Right.

JORDAN: It's this lady Azra Turk, who is...

BARTIROMO: That's right.

JORDAN: ... a plant trying to set George Papadopoulos up.

We already know about the dossier that was paid for by the Clinton campaign, taken to the secret court to get the warrant to spy on Carter Page, associated with the Trump campaign. We already know about all of that.

So spying -- as Bill Barr said under oath, spying definitely occurred. The question is, was there a proper predicate? And it looks like there wasn't.

I would also point people to -- your viewers to look at Emmet Flood's letter that he sent to the attorney general last week, where he talks about this same fundamental issue. He says, in this great country, unelected people in the bureaucracy, in the executive branch answer to the elected guy. They answer to the president, not the other way around.

BARTIROMO: Right.

JORDAN: And that is critical. When you take Chuck Schumer's statement and Emmet Flood's letter, where he points out that point, this is scary.

And this is why it's so important that Bill Barr and Michael Horowitz get to the bottom of this and report to the American people.

BARTIROMO: That's right.

And this is why I, from the beginning, have been saying, this is not about Trump for me. This is not about the president. This is about America. This is about fairness.

JORDAN: It sure is.

BARTIROMO: And I think it's so extraordinary that you have all of these international intel agents...

JORDAN: Yes.

BARTIROMO: ... Britain, Australia, Italy, all reaching out to George Papadopoulos.

And what about them reaching out, the London Center of Law reaching out to him on LinkedIn to get him a job, so...

JORDAN: Yes.

BARTIROMO: ... that they could watch him after he left the Carson campaign?

OK, let me switch gears.

JORDAN: Well, wait. But here's the...

(CROSSTALK)

BARTIROMO: Yes, go ahead.

JORDAN: But here is the -- how much were these people -- how much did the United States taxpayers pay Christopher Steele? How much did the United States taxpayers pay this Azra Turk lady who was trying to set up Papadopoulos?

How much were we paying Halper? All these are important questions that, when we do get Bill Barr in front of our committee, I'm going to ask him, or I hope his investigation will uncover and give us that information.

BARTIROMO: So, my sources are telling me this morning that Jerry Nadler is going to mark up a resolution this Wednesday to hold Bill Barr in contempt.

JORDAN: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Is that correct?

JORDAN: Probably so.

But, I mean, who knows? These guys are bound and determined to go after the attorney general, to go after President Trump, and not -- not going to focus on what we need to do to help the country. So I think they're nervous about Bill Barr, because remember what he said three weeks ago in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

He made four important points. First of all, he said spying did in fact take place. Second, he said there is a basis for his concern that the spying wasn't properly predicated. Third, he said there was a failure of leadership at the upper echelon of the FBI. We know that for sure.

Comey, McCabe, Baker, Strzok, Page, we know there was a failure of leadership there. And then, fourth, he used two terms that I have never really heard before, and my guess is most Americans haven't. He used the term unauthorized surveillance and he used the term political surveillance.

So the Democrats are scared. And, frankly, I think, when we're talking about obstruction of justice, the real obstruction of justice is what Democrats are trying to do to the attorney general. They are trying to stop him by all these things, this contempt and not having him come testify. They are trying to stop him from getting the answers that we just talked about.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

By the way, what you said a minute ago about Chuck Schumer saying that the intel agencies will take six days to Sunday to get you back, Sally Yates said that too last year.

JORDAN: Scary.

BARTIROMO: Remember when she said, don't mess with John Brennan? John Brennan will get you back.

JORDAN: It's scary.

BARTIROMO: And John Brennan was all over TV calling the president treasonous, peddle his former CIA director title.

JORDAN: And when was John Brennan's name ever on a ballot? When was James Clapper's name on a ballot? Jim Comey, Andy McCabe, Jim Baker, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, not one of them were on a ballot.

But Donald Trump's name was. And he was elected president of the United States. And for them not to -- just because they didn't like that, and didn't like the fact that the American people picked this guy to be our commander in chief, they go after him?

BARTIROMO: Hey, they were..

JORDAN: That is scary.

And that's why Emmet Flood's letter -- I would encourage every one of your viewers to read his letter...

BARTIROMO: OK.

JORDAN: ... where he lays this out, the leaking and the spying, all this.

So important that we get to the bottom of this. And that's what scares the Democrats. And that's why they are targeting Attorney General Barr.

BARTIROMO: Well, look, you had this group, this cabal of people running the intel agencies. They are running the world.

You had them running the FBI, the CIA, the NSA. And, frankly, they didn't like Donald Trump's personality, Congressman. That's it. They didn't want him as president. It didn't matter to them that he was duly elected.

(CROSSTALK)

JORDAN: And, Maria, we now know they misled people twice.

They misled the FISA court when they took the Clinton campaign's paid-for document, when they paid the law firm Perkins Coie, who then hired Fusion, who then went and hired a foreigner, Christopher Steele, to put this garbage document together, the dossier...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JORDAN: ... that became the basis for that.

And we also learned last week that, with this person they planted to go after George Papadopoulos, they misled -- they were trying to mislead there too. This was how this all started. And if we now learn that Mifsud was also working as a Western intelligence asset, that is scary.

And so this is why this investigation that Bill Barr has said he's going to do is so important.

BARTIROMO: Extraordinary.

Real quick, before -- real quick. I got to get to immigration, but, real quick, do you have a date for Bob Mueller to testify in front of your committee? He was supposed -- I know that they have offered, what, sometime in May?

JORDAN: Yes. Yes.

I mean, that's up to Jerry Nadler. He's the chairman. Look, I said all along, if they want to bring in Bob Mueller, fine. I will ask him questions. I have asked him questions before. That's fine. And if they bring him in, I think that's -- that's OK.

BARTIROMO: Do you think we're going to get accountability for the FISA abuse and for this obstruction that has taken place?

JORDAN: I do.

I think Mr. Horowitz will have his report, as you know, sometime in the next four to six weeks, is what he said.

BARTIROMO: Right.

JORDAN: I look forward to reading that. Michael Horowitz has done good work in the past. I expect another good report from the inspector general.

BARTIROMO: All right, let me move on, because, last week, "Sunday Morning Futures" was privileged enough to become the only program to be able to broadcast an entire show from the busiest border crossing in America.

JORDAN: Yes.

BARTIROMO: And that is El Paso. And what we saw was just stunning, children putting -- in incredibly difficult, terrible positions.

Then we found out -- we got confirmation that there's a renting of children program going on in El Salvador, in Honduras, Guatemala, where people are renting their kids, giving the kids to people, so that they can cross the border, then sending the kids back.

Here is what the mayor of El Paso told me. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: The children are being put into very dangerous situations.

DEE MARGO, R-MAYOR OF EL PASO, TEXAS: And, in some cases, they're informing me that we may have -- I don't know how to phrase it -- rental children, so to speak.

BARTIROMO: Right.

MARGO: ... that they aren't necessarily the actual families, that they are bringing these children in.

So it's -- there's human trafficking. There are some real serious issues that Congress needs to address.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: Is Congress going to address it?

JORDAN: Unfortunately, I don't think the Democrats are going to work with us to do what everyone now knows in this country needs to be done.

You need to build a border security wall and you need to change our asylum laws. We have said for -- the president has been clear on this. This is a crisis. Finally, now, even some on the left are realizing it is in fact a crisis, the human trafficking problem, the gang problem, the drug problem, all those things.

This is a crisis, but you have to do two fundamental things, change the asylum law, build the border security wall. Those two things have to happen first. And the Democrats just don't want to go there because, for them, it's all about politics and it's all about going after the president.

BARTIROMO: Because it's just going to give him another victory. Unbelievable.

Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks very much.

JORDAN: You bet. Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Congressman Jim Jordan.

We will take a break.

When we come back, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey on all of that.

Stay with us.

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